Dan et al,
One simple way around the IF-chasing publication choices of our authors is the green OA route, with deposit in repositories: many existing journals will be compliant through this route. Note also that the RCUK timetable is across 5 years, with an expectation of 45% in year 1, so a significant number of articles need not be in compliant journals in the coming year in any case.
Government funding and Universities move slowly: money that is promised does not arrive on the day the funded period starts, so we don't need to be ready to spend it on 1 April. Though of course it would be ideal if we were ready.
I believe that most libraries have got their "house in order" as far as the RCUK and their institutional processes will allow them to. We still have no notion how the RCUK intend to measure our compliance. We are awaiting the latest RCUK guidelines on what is "compliant", due at "the end of February". You have highlighted the struggles that we are having to raise awareness of OA appropriately and to overcome misconceptions around OA. But the great thing is that RCUK have given us the opportunity to engage with the community, about OA!
Best wishes,
Jenny Delasalle
Academic Support Manager (Research)
The Library, University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL
Tel: 02476 151275
Library support for Research: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/lib-researchers
Blog: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/libresearch
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by UKSG - Connecting the Information Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dan Scott
Sent: 20 February 2013 08:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [lis-e-resources] Squaring open access with high impact
Dear group members
*Apologies for cross posting*
I would like to invite opinion on an issue of immediate importance to all of us. In recent weeks I have been travelling around the UK attending university meetings to discuss my publications (Social Sciences Directory and Humanities Directory), open access issues generally and their response to the April 1st deadline for implementation of the new mandate. On practical issues, such as how open access funds are going to be administered, I have not met anybody yet that has got its house in order, which seems extraordinary since the RCUK decision was made over eight months ago and we are now six weeks to the start.
Whilst librarians are consistent and vocal supporters of reform (I was recently told that Social Sciences Directory is an ‘exemplar’ of a progressive publishing solution), the concerns of academics come up time and again. Researchers’ lack of understanding and refusal to accept either the need for change, or the new realities for UK research output in the light of Finch, is proving to be far more intractable than the supposedly entrenched resistance of publishing groups (which, whilst fearful that they will not be able to replicate subscription revenues from replacement article fees are already adapting and creating myriad new models).
Academics wish to continue to publish in high impact journals but, from April 1st, must publish in open access journals. I did some simple research into whether there is a body of open access journals that have impact factors, in the process finding this article:
http://wowter.net/2011/01/06/the-impact-factor-of-open-access-journals/
and this list of OA journals with impact factors:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1rF9RcqzpowYmY3ZTdkYWItZmQ0OS00YmFiLThjY2EtMzI1MjljYmE2NTE2/edit?num=50&sort=name&layout=list&pli=1
Although the data is now quite old (from 2009) it does not fundamentally alter the fact that, in many subject areas, there are not yet OA journals with impact factors.
So here’s the rub. How are librarians going to make recommendations about reconciling this problem? This would be a valuable discussion and I welcome comments.
DAN
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